1 2Watch: What's Poppin in Your World?

This month I’ll give you a quick run down of some stories which caught my eye, and wouldn’t necessarily be able to stand out amongst the heavy political stories that dominate the news.

The colour of money

Bank notes donned with Nelson Mandela’s image will soon be in circulation in South Africa. In a move that truly lives up to the phrase ‘putting your money where your mouth is’, President Zuma thinks this to be a fitting tribute to a great man who campaigned tirelessly to end apartheid in South Africa. In a time where money makes the world go round and is essential to everyday living, I wonder how those that still dream of racial segregation will feel about having to rely so heavily on Mr Mandela.

(image courtesy of news24.com)

They’ve got your number!

Social Networking site Twitter has admitted to accessing personal data from the phones of users who utilise the ‘find friends’ feature often without their knowledge. Contacts from users’ smart phones are downloaded and stored on the Twitter database for at least 18 months. This practice is common with much of the other social networking sites that allow you to sync their apps to your phone. Two congress men in America have written to Apple asking them why they would allow this to happen on an iPhone, although the issue is not isolated to the iPhone alone. The lesson here is to read the small print because it is in there… South Park fans will be reminded of the ‘HumancentiPad’ episode.

Living hell

Tragedy has struck Honduras as an overcrowded prison was set ablaze killing 355 people, making this the world’s worst fire in over 100 years. Anger has swept the country, with many believing the response from the authorities was too slow causing an unnecessary amount of deaths. Relatives of inmates and people nearby tried to wrestle their way into the burning building to launch a rescue mission, but were stopped by authorities who apparently could not locate the guards who held the keys to the cells. Prison officials have been suspended in the wake of an inquiry. My heart goes out to the families of the inmates, and even the inmates themselves. Prison is not meant to heaven but I’m sure you will all agree it shouldn’t literally be hell either.

Chip on your shoulder

Men in white coats are working their way towards what has been dubbed a ‘pharmacy-on-a-chip’. A small medical trial has just been completed where women with osteoporosis were implanted with a chip that released a small dose of hormone each day doing away with the need for them to have regular injections.

It is hoped that this technology could be used in future to help patients that need to take a variety of drugs to treat long term conditions such as cancer. My understanding of this is that it would be a more sophisticated version of the Female Contraceptive Implant which is placed just under the skin and releases the contraceptive daily. This seems to be quite an advancement in medicine and technology. I can only hope that this technology is used in the right way.